Internet browser navigation, typically referred to as “Web surfing” in the art, is well known as a mechanism enabling user access to server-stored electronic information pages on a navigable network such as the Internet network. A typical user navigating the Internet for example may have subscriptions to many password-protected Web sites that offer some form of service to the user. Examples of password-protected sites may include financial service sites such as investment, mortgage, and online banking sites, travel sites, certain entertainment and music sites, news service and information sites, and so on.
The inventor knows of a WEB service, as disclosed in documents listed in the above paragraph entitled Cross-Reference to Related Documents, that allows a client to store multiple Web site links or list entries of Web sites, some or all of which may be password protected or otherwise secured as links in one network location. A feature of the above service allows a user to program certain tasks into the system such that a software agent of the system may execute tasks at the client's listed Web sites based on that client's instruction. Although not necessarily designed specifically for a bill-pay environment, this service may be used to aggregate a client's billing sites and may be used to automatically pay bills at those listed sites for the client. The service may be directed to store user password and login information for clients and may be configured to use that information to gain access to the clients' sites, thus enabling clients to navigate by proxy to disparate sites without having to manually input login or password codes in order to gain access to the sites.
The above-described service uses a portal server to present a user-personalized application that may be displayed as an interactive home page and that contains all of the clients' listed Web sites (provided as hyperlinks) for easy navigation. This approach combines a bill consolidation model and a direct billing model if applied to bill payment enabling certain benefits of both models.
For example, the above-described service enables bills to be paid through one interface and because the billing parties are linked to the Web portal, access to bill details and bill-pay confirmation notification through the portal is possible. However, a client must trust the service to keep all of the clients secure information for accessing the disparate billing parties and must trust the service with secure information for accessing any source accounts the client has approved through the service for bill payment. Moreover, if a client elects automated bill payment, the service may not provide the kind of detailed account information a client may wish to review, nor is it likely that the service would help in any way with any kind of dispute correspondence that may arise between a client and a billing party.
Although the service known to the inventor described further above could be used to aggregate a client's billing party Web sites and may also be used to aggregate the personal login usernames, passwords and PINs for use in automated login to the listed sites, a client may still be required to manually populate forms for bill payment, which may vary from site to site and to confirm payment source-account information, and the like. If automated payment services are elected wherein the portal service, via software agent, automatically gains access to the site, populates forms with secure information and completes transactions on behalf of a client, there still may be problems associated with disputed amounts, level of bill details provided and so on. This is because the automated agent for navigation, login and form population may be configured to do just what is required to complete simple transactions and to gather general summary information about accounts and services.
One challenge to providing such an aggregation service for payment of bills is continued maintenance requirements of client parameters and third-party service parameters including updates and the like. For example, billing parties may change forms, procedures, navigation paths, security procedures, and so on. Coordinated effort by clients and the consolidation service is critical for smooth operation and the amount of continued maintenance and updating tasks may be daunting for a service that handles many clients, thus forcing higher rates to clients when compared to typical consolidation services related to service charges or subscription fees.
The inventor knows of a system, as disclosed in the provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/533,692 listed in the Cross-Reference to Related Documents of the present invention, for enabling and causing a direct network connection to be established between a first and a second node over a data-packet-network. The system includes a third network node having connection to the data-packet-network for providing an electronic interface accessible to the first node; a navigation agent directed by the third network node for navigating over the network to the second node to gather information; and at least one machine-readable instruction containing the instruction for directing and implementing the direct network connection. The electronic interface may be a Web page providing bill consolidation and payment services to a client operating the first node and wherein the connection established via the instruction enables transparent login payment of a bill at the second node, which may be a direct billing party interface of the client registered and listed on the Web page.
Direct billing services may have very specific protocols attached to certain procedures for implementing new services and service parameters for a client. For example, a client may have to wait a certain period of time before a new payment service can be activated after it is set up. Likewise, other parameters a client may provide information about when setting up a new service or account with a service site may have to be independently verified and then accepted or approved by the site authority before service can be activated. The time frame for such verification, acceptance or confirmation to be sent back to a client can range from the duration of set-up in the current session to some minutes or even hours after a session is over. In some cases, such confirmation or acceptance notices contain certain information created by the service, which may be required by the client to gain access to the service.
Setting up a service account wherein acceptance or confirmation is expected during a same network session may, in some cases, be interrupted between a client and a third-party service by network problems including sudden loss of connection. Losing network connectivity in these cases can result in problematic scenarios. Firstly, the service may not receive all of the information required by it from a client to perform the requested transaction. Secondly, a client may not receive a confirmation of service acceptance during the session or not at all if a critical routine was suddenly terminated due to network connection problems.
In some cases wherein the client may have to wait for approval, confirmation, or acceptance for a period longer than is reasonable for a single network session, the client may then be required to periodically check email or a resource page provided by the service site to determine when he or she may begin using the services requested. In some case, a combination of the above-described problems may result in a failure of set-up during the first session between the client and the service site that has gone unnoticed to the client. The client then may wait for and fully expect a confirmation that is not forthcoming. Much time and effort is then wasted before the client finally attempts to establish the requested service again following all of the same procedures again.
What is clearly needed is a method and system that may provide independent verification of state of a transaction comprising one or more communication sequences between a client and service over a data packet network. A system such as this would provide timely notification to a client of any errors that may subsequently cause or lead to lack of services and may provide timely notification to a client of when services are approved or confirmed and may be utilized.